December 16, 2011

Who are we again?

Europe is remembering its divided past. Nations are facing down their debt and getting ready to increase taxes. As they do so, and ask, "Who benefits?", I wonder if we won't see a surge of old-fashioned nationalism as a meme at all levels.

Even though the world economy is digital and globalized, and as Basel II asserted, the effects of capital management are shared by all nations, still what will Italy's leaders probably promise to do with their new tax money? "Rebuild a strong Italy."

It is far less likely that any leaders will stay in power--whether elected or not--who put the globe's interests before those of their own native populations. We are seeing this behavior from corporations, whose trillions in cash remain uninvested, even though the investment at even a low return would probably benefit the whole.

Schooled by the corporations over the past 50 years, why should nations act differently? And at that point it's a slippery slope. We will make sacrifices for our own people.

This may be the under-message of Gavin & Stacey, a very popular BBC comedy about a Welsh and an English community brought together by a young romance. Local habits are gently mocked, and ancient Celtic grudges hinted at, throughout the show. Love conquers all, and a lot of economic sharing builds bridges over Severn: potlatch, gifts, drinking parties, meals. But there is nothing of the vast Indian or Pakistani or Muslim cultural presence in Britain except the takeout order of a curry. The very narrowness of the show's scope is part of its rightness for the times: the heck with the Korean economy. Cultural differences within a few hours' drive on the M4 are enough to worry about, and the series ends laughingly on Smithy's adoption of a Welsh expression. The closeness of a tribe is a deep reckoning.

Jon Stewart famously made the point about Zuccotti Park, that it was divided into ghettoes.

As we come to the give and take of tax revenues, let's see who is defined as "we." My prediction is of tighter fists for the barbarians--with a very low hurdle for being included in that class--and open arms for folks who speak our language.